Ep.10 - Drunkenness
Ep.10 - Drunkenness
She said she would grant a wish.
Even as I stood there a moment, mouth opening and closing while I chewed over the Dragon's words, she was taking her time. She doesn't know about my ability, so of course she'd act like that—but wouldn't the right call be to just say screw all this and Load...?
But thinking about it more, right now we're at a point where not a single day passes without the whole party fighting. If we could slow the Queen's pursuit, or move farther and faster... wouldn't that be an insane advantage?
The Queen's face flashed through my mind—the way she'd clung to me, clutching my wrist and sobbing—so I couldn't bring myself to say "kill her." But still, she said she'd grant a wish...
In a lot of ways, it seemed like a win.
'But even so, giving my semen to someone I don't even know...? Even if it's a ritual, she's asking for semen with mana in it, isn't she...? Suddenly having sex out of the blue is kind of not it...'
But then that thought hit me. No matter how advantageous the situation was, I'd already gone and goddamn impregnated the other noonas. If I had another affair on top of that, it would really...
"Art thou deliberating?"
The Dragon asked me. I had no intention of answering. If I answered wrong there, my mouth might get sealed shut again, so I just gave a vague nod and kept thinking hard inside.
"..."
Yeah, just Loading is probably the better move. First, go back and tell the noonas that the Dragon was still alive, and ask them to handle it properly...
"A pity, boy. Thou art rather to my taste. Exotic, and pleasing to the eye."
...should tell them that.
Since she showed up in human form instead of as a monstrous Dragon, the feeling was somehow strange. If I asked her to get rid of this, wouldn't that basically be the same as asking to kill a person?
The Queen, and the Dragon,
When I stood before them, my heart somehow grew weak.
No, not just them—it was the same for the noonas who got swept up in all these incidents with me.
Is this like that thing where you just hand over your liver and gallbladder to handsome guys...?
Of course, even with everything that had happened so far, we'd avoided killing people whenever possible. In a way, that seemed like an unspoken consideration. Well, except for when Riko and Neva were completely furious and mowed down knights and assassins in droves...
"Then at least share a drink before thou goest. It seemeth our bond is to end here. Yet thou hast clearly put me in a difficult spot, so I shall give thee a cup of something rare, that thou mayst not feel slighted."
...This Dragon, I don't know why, but she's kind of sweet. Among all the women I'd met in this other world so far, she ranks near the top. Honestly, in that aspect, she might even surpass Neva.
If Neva is the reliable knight-nim type, this Dragon has some years on her, and that actually makes her appealing...?
The way she was subtly considerate and took care of me felt deeply unfamiliar and awkward. Having been on the receiving end of so much rough treatment, a normal situation like this just didn't compute.
"S-so, you're just letting me go? For real?"
"Still, share a drink before thou goest. Would it not be pleasant to capture our brief meeting in a cup and drink it down?"
I'd been raped so much that the Dragon's magnanimous heart genuinely moved me. Even now, she could just chop all my limbs into four chunks and have her way with me as she pleased, and yet she was holding back.
"A cup always hath space left. 'Tis not out of regret for the drink, but to float each other's lives atop the liquor and sup upon them."
The Dragon gently extended a porcelain-like cup and filled it with clear liquor. Though the drink had a serene and lucid feel, its fragrance spread in all directions the instant it was poured into the cup.
"Of course, for me, 'tis a dragon's life. I said 'life' out of consideration for thee—did it please thee?"
I could hardly lend an ear to the Dragon's words, whatever they were—jokes or otherwise. Every goddamn bit of my attention was on that cup.
It was cold yet cozy, as if it kept its mouth firmly shut in a stern manner, yet opened its heart while awaiting a small kiss.
"I-I don't really know alcohol... but it seems like a really good drink..."
"Indeed. A good drink it is. Now, take up thy cup. With this one cup, I send thee off. If fate allows, let us meet again someday."
"Um, well..."
Our cups touched. A sound rang out from my cup and the Dragon's—bright and clear—and amidst the faint tremor I felt through my hands, I drank carefully.
Before I brought anything up, my plan was to first hold a sip of the drink in my mouth and compose myself.
But.
"Whoa... dear god..."
"It seemeth to please thee. I am glad."
That single, heartfelt sip of liquor was infused with quite a few meanings. Though it surely wasn't just because of one cup of alcohol, what I felt was that this Dragon didn't seem like such a bad Dragon after all.
"Ah, yes. It's really good. But... well, I do want to talk about it, yet honestly, I still can't bring myself to trust you. You're a symbol of terror, you know...? You wrecked all of L'Myune... you harass the dwarves every time..."
"What art thou saying? Harass? I went to L'Myune to help, did I not?"
"Huh? No, weren't you going around slicing everything up with an ice sword or something...?"
Had my guess been right?
The Dragon tilted her head as if she truly had no idea what I meant, and asked me in return.
"Did those little ones not tell thee? I surely left word."
"Wha—what did you say? They said you told them to offer up a boy with a god's mana as a sacrifice!"
"What manner of talk is that now? I clearly said: a boy with a god's mana would pass through this place, so I asked them to tell him to come find me."
Something had...
Had there been some kind of miscommunication between the dwarves and the Dragon? At the ambiguously crossed gap in understanding, a hollow laugh even leaked out of me.
"Th-then why did you slice up the city? That's why the dwarves were so scared!"
"The fire that spread from those little ones' dragon furnace is not easily quenched. I took measures beforehand to keep it from spreading to the surrounding mountains and cities. Because when I cut things down, the fire cannot spread."
"But you still attacked the knights... didn't you?"
"I merely responded because they attacked first. Even if I am fairly generous with my dragon's tolerance, would I not be short on tolerance for mortals who point their speartips at me first?"
"Ah, right... honestly, cleaning up those knights was actually a gain for us. Th-then what about the ancestors' grudge or whatever? The dwarves were all trembling like crazy, saying you were trying to get revenge on them..."
"Ancestors' grudge? Those little ones have never come to see me... no, they did. Yes. Long ago, some little youngster boldly came into my sanctuary saying she would build a city or something, so I cheered her on and told her to work hard. That would be the end of it."
"...???!"
The more I listened, the more my head throbbed. Unlike what those stupid idiot loli bastards had said, the stories the Dragon told me were remarkably peaceful and ordinary.
To put it another way, the giant dragon I'd thought was a terrifying boss monster turned out to be an NPC. A really damn kind NPC at that.
"Ha, haha... so the dwarves tricked me..."
"Well, as I listen, the situation gradually maketh sense. It seemeth I was misunderstood in many ways. To small ones, my body must seem rather large, so surely they were all terrified."
"Yeah... looks that way..."
"Still, it cannot be helped. Having entangled myself in various matters, I have no excuse even if such ill repute follows me..."
The Dragon smiled, a little bitterly. In her smile were the unfathomable authority of ages, a longing for days gone by, and regret.
"Boy, hast thou not heard my name either? My name is Leviathan. I am the calamity of old, the one who cleaves the sky and rends the earth to summon winter."
Leviathan.
Chichi had mentioned that name back at the entrance to L'Myune. Definitely... she'd said she was an incredibly strong Dragon, right?
"I-I'm not really familiar with it."
"Ho. Even as a man, there is a need to learn this and that. It seemeth human men still get punished or some such if they set their minds to scholarship."
"Ah... yeah, well... something like that."
The Dragon's gaze softened further. It seemed she was put at ease by the fact that I didn't know her infamous name.
"A short but good meeting it hath been. It has been quite a while since I met a mortal who did not fear me."
The Dragon flashed a grin. She didn't give off an air of aristocratic elegance—rather, she felt like an English gentleman in a tailored suit.
Even her smile, bright yet holding many emotions blended together, suited her human side.
"...Um."
A certainty took hold. The certainty that this person could be trusted.
Opening my heart so soon after meeting her might be a stupid thing to do, but still, if she would grant a wish...
"Why were you looking for me? As lo-long as it's not something too hard, I'll do whatever you want. No sexual stuff either! If the other noonas find out, I'm seriously dead...! What kind of ritual is it?"
"Oh, boy! Thou hast opened thy heart! Huhu... thou hast a gentle soul. Gentler than thy jade-pearl face."
I brushed off the archaic metaphor that made me tilt my head with a vague laugh, and anyway, I requested an explanation from her.
Why she'd been looking for me, what was going on, what she wanted.
"Why, obviously because I wish to receive the mana in thy body, is it not? Ah, of course, receiving it will not cause all thy mana to flee, nor will thy body be shattered. Worry not."
"M-mana, to give it to you... do we have to... the two of us... do that? Can I just give you semen...?"
"Tha...t? Semen? Ah. Thou speakest of copulation. If thou wishest, we could do that as well. But I can draw out mana simply by pressing our lips together, so fret not."
Ah. Just a kiss?
Wouldn't that much be okay...?
I heard somewhere that there are countries where people kiss as a greeting. Honestly, if it's not sex, there's no reason to refuse. A few kisses and she'll even grant a wish—this is actually a bargain.
"...So, if I just kiss you, you'll really grant my wish? Anything?"
"A request would be more fitting than a wish. Though I am strong, there are limits to worldly matters. I shall do my utmost to help as far as my power reacheth."
"O-okay. Then I'll do it, so promise me first! When we go back, immediately unfreeze the dwarves and my noonas, and also, if you could give me some of this alcohol, that'd be great... yeah. A lot of my noonas like drinking..."
The Dragon chuckled.
"Thy requests are quite many. I shall naturally unfreeze the other mortals, and I will pack a few bottles of drink as a gift. Put such things aside, and tell me a proper request."
Nice...!
Dragon-nim was seriously so goddamn kind, it seemed like this would go smoothly without a hitch. She didn't look like someone who would break a promise either.
"Erm... and we need to head south quickly, so if you could take us south... no, since we're at it, all the way to the end of the continent..."
Maybe,
If she was really insanely strong, she might even be able to send us straight to the Demon Continent, not just the southern tip.
But first, let's just float the idea.
"Thou art being chased. It is rather adorable that instead of asking me to stop thy pursuers, thou askest me to take thee away. Boy, when praying for something, one must be careful. Hast thou thought carefully?"
"Yes. That's the most important part. My other noonas are crazy strong anyway, so we can handle any pursuit easily. On top of that, if we go far down south, the pursuit will have a hard time following and won't even be able to properly engage us. Moving us down there is better than blocking them... I think. Yeah... we're dodging because it's a pain in the ass, and running because we don't want to be chased for the rest of our lives..."
Even I thought it was a pretty smart judgment. Did it feel like my head was suddenly working better?
As if all the accumulated fatigue and stupidity had been washed cleanly away...
"Very well, I promise thee. Come hither."
Given how my head had cleared and my overly sensitized body had calmed down considerably, it was obvious. The chakjeong debuff had completely vanished.
The drink probably had a status ailment cleansing effect mixed in. It was weird for alcohol, which strains the liver, to have that kind of effect, but if the drink the Dragon personally brewed had some god-tier effect, there was nothing particularly surprising about it.
"Thou pleasest me more up close, boy."
The Dragon carefully pressed her lips to mine. Her blue hair tied back, her healthy bare skin showing in no small amount, her face wearing a faintly wistful smile.
"Thou mayest call me by name. I shall permit it, so please, call me by name. I wish to hear the sound that comes from thy small lips."
"Leviathan, you said... right?"
"Revi will suffice. Say it."
"Ah, uh... Revi-ssi..."
"Yes, very good."
We kissed. It was a kind and tender kiss. She savored my lips, slowly biting and sliding her tongue in, and my tongue, without deterring hers, carefully received it.
A kiss this much was fine. It didn't cross the line, so it would really be okay.
As long as it didn't go any further. Just a kiss like this, and then I'd coolly turn around and walk out...
"Haah, hff... ooh... Re, Revi-ssi..."
"Well done. An unforgettable night it is. I had no particular desire to hold a man, yet at times, I found myself wanting to enjoy such diversions."
I was supposed to just walk out.
What the...?